I am planning on taking a couple of duck hunting buddies to Louisiana during the middle of December. My mom lives in Lafayette but we are willing to travel anywhere in the state to hunt. We are from South Texas and will be looking to hunt with a guide at least one day while there.

I have heard that Coonasses don't take too kind to foreigners intruding on their hunting grounds, so I'm not going to ask for specifics. I do have a couple of questions that some of you might be willing to help with.

We will be somewhere between 2 to 4 hunters and possibly one camera man.

First question: Can anyone recommend a guide where we will have a shot to shoot some mallards?

Second question: Can anyone recommend a place that we can rent a boat for a couple of days?

Third question: Can anyone recommend a place where we can scout that accomodates walk in hunters?

Fourth question: Would anyone be willing to let a couple of transplanted Louisiana boys hunt with them?

If your willing to travel to North La heres what i suggest:For guide, call Johnny Wink at MegaBuck Duck Guides in Jones, La. johnnywink.com i believeThere are several refuges in the area you can walk in to but be warned they get VERY crowded and full of hunters with NO respect for others.

ive found it to be real hard to have a good walk in hunt in louisiana unless you do LOTS and LOTS MORE scouting and work. a boats pretty well neccessary. theres good guides all over the state, go north for mallards, or if ya want marsh stay in swla. if i knew just how good my spots on public land would be id invite ya, but im not sure how great theyll be till the birds come. if they are good id LOVE to host a camera crew.

section 120 rd in sherburne wildlife is a walk in spot. they also have on site lottery hunts in the south farm section during the week. Your best bet might be just to pull up the wma's and look at their maps. You can shoot mallards walking into wma's just most people are reluctant to give up any good spots and understandably so.

Trust me, the last thing I want is a honey hole. Louisiana is a relatively small place with a ton of water. I looked on maps at all of the WMAs but it is a little difficult to know what they are like without being from the area. Maybe some are more gracious to walk in hunters, maybe some are huntable only by boat. I have no idea. I will be making some phone calls to some of the WMAs to find out and get some advice. If I get a general idea of what might work, I will work my butt off to scout. What I don't want to do is run all over central Louisiana scouting places that I can't even hunt without a boat. Thanks to everyone who has chimed in. I am trying to set something up with Megabucks for a day or two up there.

I know that people are reluctant to give up any names over the net. I honor that, and live by that myself.

Well that opens up alot more options. I cant speak on all areas but Sherburne WMA, I think some area of Manchac wma are open to walk ins. Lacassine may be one to look at as well. Its a NWR as opposed to a wma so different rules apply so be sure and read up on regulations. Red river and three rivers wma is an option as well. Im sure there are a few others but im just not familiar with them. if you gat your hands on a small boat or even a few canoes, kayaks, or pirogues it will open alot more options both on the wma's i mentioned and others not.

Can't speak to public land farther north, but fishon pegged it for SWLA: successful walk-in opportunity from the Basin west is in short supply and takes tons of scouting. I'd abandon that notion. He's likely also right about mallards being a surer thing as you go north. Not to say we don't shoot plenty of them in SWLA, but they're not the staple here that I gather they are elsewhere.

i agree with arr010, give johnny wink a call at megabucks. hes the best around. as for russel sage and ouachita wma. i hunt em all the time and they are both bone dry with no water. they started pumping water in but bayou lafource (where they pump them from) is super low and after a few days they shut her down bc they were pumping air and mud and didnt wanna tear the pump up. so those two arent very good ideas, i would hate to see you make a trip up here to north la and not find anything. i would try beouf river wma near winnsborro la. full of water and lots of birds esp mallards. there is a ton of ppl tho so be prepared.

<only two kinds of people don't have beards, boys and women,....and I am neither><the way i see it is the Lord only blesses you with so many sunrises and sunsets and i want to catch as many as i can>

Sandman3400 wrote:If you really want mallards, your best bet is a rice field hunt. There are several commercial / guided operations between Lafayette and Lake Charles. You can probably find adds on Louisiana Sportsman.

We hunt both fresh marsh and rice, and I'm thinking the fresh marsh is the better mallard bet. Know they were second only to greenwings at my marsh blind last season.

I hunt sabine nwr and you cant walk in and hunt but mallards are there as far as a guide goes check out louisiana sportsman or get back to me and I'll make some calls for you as far as boats go guide should provide the boat i have several friends who are guides and have multiple boats made to go just about anywhere if you would like more info pm me.

If you can afford it go to Honey Brake in Jonsville. Holy crap is that a nice place! I hunted there two yrs ago when I took a dog to show one of the guides that was looking for a dog. Only hunted one morning but it was pretty cool. All we shot in that blind was GWT teal but had a blast and the accomodations are 5 star. If you watch the Honey Brake Experience show and see a Choco dog named Diesel thats the one I sold them for a client of mine.

Contact Rick Hall who posted above. I have never hunted with him but have spoken to him. I am blessed to have access to woods and rice field hunts so I havenever hunted with him. I have NEVER heard of a complaint from anyone who hunted with him. if I was looking for a guided hunt/operation, I do not think you can do better than him. He is also close to Lafayette and his area has quality birds and geese as a bonus.

I second the recommendation to book a hunt with Rick. He posts detailed logs of his hunts complete with pictures. He kills mallards on a consistent basis out of his "mudhole". He is a good caller and hunter that produces proven results on the duck strap.